MADRID, (Reuters) – Sweden striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic moved to Barcelona from Inter Milan and Cameroon’s Samuel Eto’o went the other way yesterday in a swap deal worth more than 66 million euros ($94.14 million).
The two forwards signed five-year contracts, both clubs said in statements.
With Eto’o being valued at 20 million euros, Barcelona announced they were paying a separate 46 million euro fee and loaning Belarus midfielder Aleksandr Hleb to Inter for the season.
Italian champions Inter, who have yet to confirm Hleb’s arrival, will have the chance to buy the former Arsenal player for 10 million euros plus variables next year.
Barca added that Ibrahimovic, 27, needs immediate surgery on a bone fracture in his left hand.
“I’m not coming as a substitute for Eto’o because I am a very different player. I come to bring something new,” Ibrahimovic told a news conference that had been delayed more than an hour due to a last-minute complication with the deal.
“No one knows this but months ago I told (Inter president Massimo) Moratti I wanted to play for Barca. I told him there was only one team who would be able to buy me. There are many great clubs, but only one like Barcelona.”
BONE FRACTURE
Ibrahimovic passed a medical earlier in the day, though doctors detected the bone fracture in his left hand, picked up during Inter’s recent friendly against Chelsea. He will undergo surgery on Tuesday to fix the problem.
“The idea is that the player travels with us to the United States (on Wednesday),” sports director Txiki Begiristain said.
“We hope he might be able to play some minutes in the Hans Gamper Trophy (against Manchester City on Aug 19) and that he will be fully recovered for the return leg of the Spanish Super Cup (against Athletic Bilbao on Aug 23).
“We don’t want him to start playing here in pain.”
Ibrahimovic was presented with the number nine shirt and was welcomed by more than 50,000 fans on the Nou Camp pitch.
